Poirot:Hallowe'en Party

I've read all the Christie novels but don't recall Zoe Wannamaker's character featuring in quite so many.

Was she in the novel? And where have Hastings and Miss Lemon disappeared to?
 
[/B]
I don't think it was an issue in the book. MIA is my favourite Marple and one of my fav Christies. It was set in the time it was written [late 40s] and lesbians were not exactly aliens even in those dismal times. I read it almost at one sitting in 1974 while Scotland were playing Yugoslavia in the World Cup finals then.
 
Not one of the best Poirot books, tbh,and I have been less and less keen on the adaptions by ITV in recent years (they seem less and less in keeping with the source material, but still, let's hope for the best and it turns put to be a good 'un!:)
 
They can't do Curtain without Hastings, can they?! Isn't his daughter one of the people involved in the story? If they take that out they've butchered another book!

And all I've seen of this MOTOE is the trailer on You Tube. It even looks different on there. There was a scene of Poirot praying - cos he knew he was gonna let off the killers, (even though of course it was cleverly done so no one knew which one actually did kill him - and he always says he doesn't agree with murder whoever the victim is...?? - which is certainly not in the book.

If this version is 'darker' Albert Finney's Poirot would fit that! He turned Poirot into a very scary character when he did MOTOE! He looked more menacing than any murderer! lol

The one problem I've usually had with the full length Poirot's is the way they are so different to the books I remember so well. The short stories (the original series) was different cos I'd never read any so they were all new to me, but the full stories .... missing characters, sex changes (Linda in Evil in the Sun became Leonard in the telly version for some reason!) ... just so irritating.

The biggest crime, to me, is one of Christie's most ingenious books - Roger Ackroyd. I'd been looking forward to that one, but they completely ruined it, it was nothing like the book.
ShepherRAB sister was the character that Miss Marple came from - she was an elderly inquisitive spinster, ShepherRAB elder sister (he was in his late 50's I think), And she had no idea what her brother had done. At the end of his 'journal' he asks that the truth be kept from her.

In the telly version his sister was a butch looking woman who was younger than her brother, who not only knew what he'd done (cos she read his journal) but she tried to help him escape.
Sacrilige! It's much easier watching a full length story I don't know very well, and as I've heard most of the audio books by now, there's not many, so I don't really enjoy many of them cos they're so different to the books.

I sometimes wonder how David Suchet feels about that, seeing as he originally read all the Poirot books to help him see what the character was like.
 
Agree that Suchet is the perfect Poirot, as Hickson was the perfect Marple. She was so quiet, intelligent and gentle, but authoritative .... The ITV ones are just annoying.
 
And of course, she played Agatha Christie herself in the Doctor Who story "The Unicorn and the Wasp" a couple of years back, a story set on the day that Christie vanished...
 
Even in the Joan Hickson version featuring the clothesline episode, it was spelled out that Joan Sims and Paola Dionisotti, who incidentally was the old char/local witch in this, were lesbians. Does anyone know whether it's the same in the book ?
 
Got round in watching Hallowe'en Party last night & i thought it was pretty good.I had read the novel when i was younger but i couldn't remember much about it.I couldn't remember who was behind the killings which was a good thing as it didn't spoil it for me.

While i do enjoy Poirot.The problem i have is i do miss the characters Chief Inspector Japp,Captain Hastings & Miss Lemon.I always feel that it is only a proper Poirot episode where if not all 3 characters then 1 or 2 of them are involved.The last Poirot ITV adaptation where all 3 characters were involved in the story was "Evil Under The Sun" back in 2001 & the last ITV adaptation to feature Hastings was "Murder in Mesopotamia" which was also 2001

Now i seem to remember reading somewhere that someone from the estate of Agatha Christie wanted ITV to remain faithful to the poirot novels.Yet the 2 stories that i mentioned above if i remember correctly do not feature any of the 3 characters above.So i'm not too sure how that all came about.






The character Ariadne Oliver features in the following novels along side Poirot.CarRAB on the Table,Mrs McGinty's Dead,Dead Man's Folly,Third Girl,Hallowe'en Party & Elephants Can Remember.

She also fetures in the novel "The Pale Horse" but when ITV a few months showed their adaptation of the novel they dropped the Ariadne Oliver character in favor for the Miss Marple character who doesn't feature in the novel.
 
I sat down and watched it last night. Loved it. Good screenplay by Mark Gatis, great casting and performances. The whole production was superb. Well done ITV (also for Downton). If we get nuggets of gold like this ever so often then I wish people would stop knocking BGT and X Factor which brings in the big bucks.
 
Love Poirot, loved this adaptation. Only thing that got me was them showing the drowning of the young girl...disturbed me a bit.

No-one can beat Suchet and Hickson, my mum who is a huge fan of all things Christie refuses to watch the new Marple :(
 
I watch them, but can't immerse myself in them as I could with Joan Hickson's portrayal.

Julia MacKenzie is far too smiley and McEwan looks manic, either one of them would irritate people, not gain their trust and sympathy as Joan Hickson would (without ever compromising her integrity). She could be stern and disapproving, McEwan seems to have a malicious streak, and MacKenzie is just a smug cow.

Apologies to both actresses, they have done some good work, but they ain't Marple.
 
Back
Top